Amy Gehrt: Fear Iran’s program

Tuesday

Aug 17, 2010 at 12:01 AMAug 17, 2010 at 2:16 PM

In another display of outright defiance, Iran is announcing plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment sites inside protected mountain strongholds. The news ratchets up an already-tense situation in the Mideast, and leaves the world in no doubt how Iran feels about the international community’s efforts to get Tehran to curb its nuclear program.

Amy Gehrt

In another display of outright defiance, Iran is announcing plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment sites inside protected mountain strongholds. The news ratchets up an already-tense situation in the Mideast, and leaves the world in no doubt how Iran feels about the international community’s efforts to get Tehran to curb its nuclear program.

Iran claims the program’s aim is to generate electricity, but the U.S. and the European Union believe it is actually a smokescreen for a far more sinister purpose: developing a nuclear weapons capability.

Even more alarming, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also informed the government about a new law which bans anything other than the most minimal level of cooperation with the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog group, the International Atomic Energy Agency. If any country dares to search Iranian ships or planes for dual-use materials, the law also includes language that allows the Iranian government to retaliate against that country.

If Iran’s nuclear program really is as innocent as the country claims, why would they need to hide these sites inside protected mountain strongholds? And why would they enact such a combative law?

To me, it seems obvious that if everything was on the up and up, Iranian leaders would welcome the opportunity to prove that to the U.N., and the world at large, by building the sites out in the open and welcoming inspections.

Instead, Ahmadinejad has chosen to cloak his program, and his true intentions, in a shroud of secrecy. So it’s no wonder even experts aren’t sure how far along Iran’s nuclear program really is, or what its capabilities are.

It’s not like Tehran hasn’t been caught red-handed. Less than a year ago it was revealed Iran was operating an undisclosed enrichment facility beneath the mountains near the city of Qom. In the face of international outrage, Ahmadinejad described it as a pilot program and said he had planned on informing the IAEA about the facility six months before it became operational, as was required by the IAEA.

Both the IAEA and the U.N. quickly rejected that interpretation of the regulations, and the U.S. pointed out the facility was too small to enrich uranium for civilian purposes but could be used to produce bomb-grade fuel.

As a result, the U.N. enacted a fourth set of economic sanctions in June — its toughest to date. Last month, the Obama administration and the European Union tried to toughen the sanctions further by adopting their own unilateral restrictions on foreign companies that conduct business with Iran’s energy sector.

But two months later, and 15 years after the first sanctions against Iran were imposed, they seem to have had little, if any, effect. Part of the blame for that can be laid at the doors of China, Russia, India and Turkey.

The four countries say they will adhere to the weaker U.N. sanctions, but are not obligated to follow the U.S. and European Union rules. Instead they have opted to capitalize on the sanctions by pursuing trade and investment deals that violate the current sanctions, or could in the future.

The desire to make money is understandable, especially in this economic climate. But do they really not see that their actions increase instability in the Mideast, and around the globe? Or worse, is their greed so strong they simply don’t care?

If the international community really wants to send a strong message to Iran, and put a stop its nuclear ambitions before it is too late, it needs to present a truly united front. If we don’t all work together to bring about a peaceful resolution soon, the consequences could be far worse than anything this world has ever faced.

Amy Gehrt may be reached at agehrt@pekintimes.com.

The views expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the newspaper.

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